214: Nerding Out w/Mitch Joel—On Ideas, Systems, Credibility, and Connections

Seth Godin recently described Mitch Joel (in celebration of his 700th episode) as “in the pantheon, one of the greats.” I couldn’t agree more.

Mitch is a well-respected friend and colleague to so many of us in the business, writing, and speaking communities. He sees trends and platforms coming long before they hit mainstream, and his output, ideas, and incisive interviewing style consistently leaves me with inspiration and new information.

He was gracious to have me on his Six Pixels of Separation Podcast when Pivot launched, and the conversation (among dozens and dozens) left such a mark on me that I quoted him in the afterword for the paperback edition of Pivot in 2017 the following year. Here’s an excerpt:

My guiding principle now is faith in flow, a reminder that helps me trust the natural cycles of tension and release, hustle and flow, grit and grace. I listen for what’s next, but try not to rush the answer.

If the Plant stage involves putting a pin in one’s desired destination a year from now, entering my post-pivot rest mode was like hitting the “current location” button in a maps app—it spun me back and helped me zoom in on where I was right now, not someplace off in the future where I should be.

In the words of my friend and fellow author Mitch Joel, instead of only focusing on what’s next, we’d do well to reflect on the equally important question: what’s now?
— Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/214

More about Mitch Joel

mitch-joel-canada-small.jpg

Mitch Joel is Founder of Six Pixels Group - an advisory, investing and content producing company that is focused on brands, commerce, community and what’s next.

He has been called a visionary, digital expert and community leader. He is also an entrepreneur, investor, author, trusted advisor, chronic reader and passionate speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his insights on business transformation, innovation and marketing. He was awarded the highly prestigious Top 40 Under 40.

Mitch spent close to two decades building, running and selling his agency to WPP - one of the world's most valuable marketing and communications holding companies. He was most recently President of Mirum – a global marketing agency operating in 25 countries with close to 3000 employees. Prior to agency life, Mitch was at the vanguard of online publishing, helped launch one of the first search engines (prior to Google existing), and ran marketing for a mobile content company (before we had smartphones).

Topics Covered

  • Episode 700 (Dec 8) with Seth Godin

  • Connecting with friendtors

  • His new direction for articles: business poetry

  • Systems vs. Chaos

  • How do you prepare, and what makes a great interview? 

  • The most powerful skill any professional can have

  • Speaking from experience vs. opinion

  • Groove (Mitch’s electric base podcast)

  • How Mitch produces so much content each week

Resources Mentioned

Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen, and if you enjoy the show I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! Sign-up for my weekly(ish) #PivotList newsletter to receive curated round-ups of what I’m reading, watching, listening to, and new tools I’m geeking out on.